Medvedev – 'missile site on Europe's doorstep'

RUSSIA'S president has said he will position missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads on the EU's border to counter a United States anti-missile shield.

During a speech bristling with criticism of the US, delivered only hours after Barack Obama's election victory Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia will station missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, surrounded by EU states, as a response to the perceived threat posed by the American shield, which will be located in Poland and the Czech Republic.

In yesterday's 85 minute address that could increase East-West tensions and heighten fears of a new Cold War, Mr Medvedev said: "To neutralise, if necessary, the anti-missile system, an Iskander missile system will be deployed."

With a range of 400 kilometres and designed to strike small targets the Iskander could easily hit the missile component of the American shield that Poland agreed to host under a deal struck with Washington this summer.

The Russian president stressed that he had "no problem with the American people and no in-born anti-Americanism", and hoped that the new American administration would move towards "full-fledged relations with Russia."